The old Bishop, muttering to himself, shuffled out of the door. Corbett remained, looking out of the window. The sun had gone, a strong wind had arisen. He looked across the Tweed and saw the dark stormclouds gathering above Scotland. Images passed through his mind. Alexander III, King of Scotland, black against the night sky as he fell to his lonely death. Wishart, foxy eyes, the power and the fury of the Lord Bruce. Then, once again, the lines of Thomas of Learmouth passed through his mind and he knew the prophecy was right. The green hills below him would run with blood before the murder of Alexander III, the death of the Lord's anointed, was expunged from the face of the earth. His death would need atonement before his crown moved out of the gathering darkness.
NINETEEN
In Edinburgh Castle John Benstede, clerk and special emissary from Edward of England, was also drawing his affairs to a close. His baggage and trunks with their secret compartments for letters, memoranda, bills and items of business had been taken downstairs by Aaron and strapped on sumpter ponies waiting in the courtyard. Benstede looked round the cold stone-wall chamber. He had left nothing and was secretly pleased to be going. He had already visited Bishop Wishart to thank him for his hospitality and had been slightly surprised by the Bishop's effusive warmth. He was too friendly, thought Benstede, and wondered if the Bishop knew anything about Corbett's revelations.
Benstede slumped on to the straw-filled bed and, not for the first time, quietly cursed the inquisitive English clerk. He had heard about Corbett, a secretive, ambitious, ruthless man though, Benstede concluded, one with a conscience. Such a man should not be allowed to play a part in public affairs. There was a time for conscience but this did not apply to the important matters between kings and countries. Surely, Benstede thought, would it matter if a few men died so that peace could be maintained? And the good order Edward had established in England be spread as in Roman times throughout the entire land?
Benstede worshipped Edward. He saw the English king as a living reincarnation of all that was good and proper in a knight and in a king. Benstede had read the Arthurian romances spread by the minstrels and troubadours of France and England and considered that if they were true, then Edward was Arthur come again. The English king had brought peace and good order to Wales, built roads, stimulated trade, healed the wounds of civil war and, through his use of Parliaments, brought the whole kingdom and entire community of the realm into one coherent organisation. Benstede loved order and hated chaos. Everything had its place, everything should be ordered. Benstede was a doctor and had seen the ravages of sickness in the human body. As Saint Augustine said, "The kingdom was the body and there were diseases ever ready to break out, the pus and the evil humours spreading through every limb causing infection and bringing everything to nothing".
Scotland under the wrong king could be a bubo or growth on England. Time and again Edward had confided to Benstede his dreams about not only restoring the empire of Henry of Angevin but expanding it. Northern France was to be conquered, Wales and Ireland annexed and Scotland subjugated. The empire of the mysterious Arthur was to be re-established in harmonious union under one ruler. Edward paid particular attention to Scotland, pointing out that the northern kingdom was the greatest threat to his realm. A hostile Scotland could bring war and devastation to England's northern shires with their long exposed borders and vulnerable coastlines. In 1278 Edward tried to force Alexander to concede that the English king was his overlord. Alexander refused and publicly insulted Edward, who never forgave or forgot such a gesture. Nevertheless, the English king was patient. He had worked too hard to lose Scotland, sacrificing his own dear sister to gain it only to see his nephews, Alexander's sons, die in mysterious circumstances. Edward-had often wondered, in Benstede's company, if the boys had actually been killed by the French or factions hostile to England. Nonetheless, Edward was satisfied that the Scottish king was childless for if he died without an heir Edward would advance his claims by arranging a marriage between his own baby son and Margaret, the Maid of Norway, and so the English king's writ would run from Cornwall to the northernmost tip of Scodand. There would be no more raids, no more wars along the northern march, no danger of a foreign king or prince using Scodand as a postern-gate into England.
Edward hoped this would happen but Alexander and the interfering, conniving King Phillip of France proved they wished to change all this. English spies in Scodand reported an increase in envoys from Paris and the English were horrified to learn that Philip had managed to persuade Alexander to marry the spoilt bitch Yolande. Edward, fearing the worst, immediately despatched Benstede to Scodand to see what might happen. At first, Benstede believed he could do nothing but simply watch and report to his master: he had considered a secret alliance between Edward and the Bruce faction but realised that, ambitious as the Bruces were, they would never plot against the Scottish king just to hand the crown to Edward. Consequendy, Benstede diverted his attention to Alexander III and his new queen and hardly believed his good fortune to discover that relations between the king and his new bride were far from harmonious. Benstede would have let matters stay like that, or even secretively encouraged the Scottish King's break from his wife, helping him to obtain a decree of divorce from the Pope on grounds of non-consummation. That would have taken years. The Pope was in the hands of the French and would not quickly allow an annulment which would certainly insult the French court. Yet, once again, Alexander had moved quickly and secretively. Urged on by the devious and sinister de Craon, Alexander, so Benstede discovered, not only intended to divorce Yolande but immediately marry Margaret, the sister of Philip IV, and so move Scotland completely under French influence. The papacy, far from delaying the annulment would, under French pressure, actually hasten it through in a matter of months. Of course, Benstede was angry and the red-faced, boisterous Alexander had often teased Edward's envoy with malicious relish, baiting and taunting him with the prospects of a French prince sitting on the ancient throne of Scone. 'What then?' he had once jibed at Benstede. 'How does this fit in with your master's grand design? Never again, Master Benstede,' he shouted, 'will an English king demand from a Scottish monarch fealty for his own kingdom. Do you understand that? If you do, tell your master. Never, I repeat, never!' It was after such an interview that Benstede had decided Alexander must die, for what the Scottish king intended would plunge most of Europe into a bitter war and Edward would see his dreams fade. 'No,' Benstede whispered to himself, 'Alexander deserved to die.' The English envoy smiled to himself. It had all been so easy. The humble approach to an attentive ear, the quiet careful planning. A visit to Kinghorn, then back to Edinburgh to inform the King that his proud, pouting wife was aflame with desire for him. Other preparations were made. He had used that boatman, Taggart, to transport supplies across to caves on the other side of the Forth whilst Aaron had gone deeper into the countryside and purchased horses to stable there.